Now in his seventies, Neil French is a Hemingway-esque figure. Neil's checkered past includes a stint as Judas Priest's band manager and a foray into Soho's pornographic underworld that lasted until the Maltese mafia threatened his life. 

It was Neil's stratospheric success in advertising that made him rich and famous, yet for reasons left unexplained, he can't stomach being compared to Don Draper of MAD MEN. 

In 2005, he finished his career with Sir Martin Sorrell at WPP with the exalted title "worldwide creative director," then went into the business of being a dad full time.

This podcast presents a single hour of coherent conversation (distilled from several hours of discursive dialogue).

In this recording, we get into random & fascinating topics like:

• How to know when to give up bullfighting
• David Ogilvy: from boardroom to bedroom
• Why you should try to write the way you talk
• Ozzy Osbourne's incredible ear for accents
• The mindsets and practices that create and sell-in effective advertisements
• Banging heads with the chairman of Mitsubishi, and how that can be avoided by using a 4-foot "cultural exclusion zone"
• The generous spirit of Thai women
• Which airline serves the best curry
• The genius of Jimmy Buffett and the poetry of country music
• How to get the best out of your clients while helping them get the best out of you
• Being likeable versus ingratiating
• Living without regrets

Jeremy Hildreth is the idiosyncratic proprietor of the "I'm talking to who?!" conversation series. 

The ambition here is to start with a fascinating guest who's lived a remarkable life so far, then goad him or her into a ranging, elucidating, and revelatory conversation. 

http://jeremyhildreth.com | If you want to never be boring (or bored) work with me.

iTunes cover art by Carmen Nistor | https://www.saatchiart.com/carmennistor

Neil French | http://www.neilfrench.com/

Neil French | "I'm not hung enough for Boogie Nights." (interview)

A year after Parag Khanna became the most hated man in Mongolia for making a disparaging (yet accurate!) remark about their geopolitical prospects, he accepted the president of Mongolia’s invitation to visit the country. 

But instead of flying like a normal person, Parag drove 13,000km from London to Ulaanbaatar (as part of the Mongol Rally) in a decommissioned British Army Land Rover field ambulance, which he then donated to Mongolia’s medical services.

This is what I admire most about my friend Parag: if and when he doesn’t have actual skin in the game, he has the next best thing: his feet on the ground.

Parag Khanna, who turns 40 this month, is a scholar and a traveller (not always in that order) and a wise and well-informed man, characterised as a visionary by none other than THE BLACK SWAN's Nassim Taleb.

In this conversation, which took place backstage at the Moscow Urban Forum a few minutes after I'd interviewed him on-stage for the Forum itself, we get into Parag’s views on:

* What it means to fuse the reality between “what you read” and “what you see”
* The paradox of how the future success of globalisation depends on increased tribalism (and why he supports secessionist movements)
* Why it’s probably your own goddamn government’s fault if you’re unhappy that your job went overseas
* How most people misuse the term globalisation in pathetically self-serving ways
* Why it's sound judgment to "trust the traveller.”
* Why Berlin, London, Singapore, New York are awesome
* Why Dubai (Dubai??) is REALLY awesome, too

Jeremy Hildreth is the idiosyncratic proprietor of the "I'm talking to who?!" conversation series. 

The ambition here is to start with a fascinating guest who's lived a remarkable life so far, then goad him or her into a ranging, elucidating, and revelatory conversation. 

http://jeremyhildreth.com | If you want to never be boring (or bored) work with me.

iTunes cover art by Carmen Nistor | https://www.saatchiart.com/carmennistor

Parag Khanna | http://www.paragkhanna.com/

Parag Khanna | “My limo is a Skoda." (interview)

Jeremy Hildreth is a writer, contrarian, and veteran aide-de-camp to the top brass of companies, cities, countries & continents re: brand strategy and tactics. /// His ambition with the "I'm talking to who?!" conversation series is to start with a fascinating guest who's lived a remarkable life so far, then goad him or her into a ranging and elucidating conversation which is far more revelatory and instructive than it is self-promotional.

Jeremy Hildreth

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